Testing dates- Applications for the Erie Bureau of Police's written exam will be available on March 31. They can be picked up at city Human Resources Director Connie Cook's office in Room 300 at Erie City Hall, 626 State St.- Applications will be distributed through April 11, and they must be returned by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15. - The written exam will be May 17 at 10 a.m. at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. - A physical agility test will take place on June 28 at 9 a.m. at the Cathedral Prep Events Center, 501 W. 12th St.

For more information, call the Human Resources office at 870-1247.

Source: City of Erie

There are easier hills to climb.

Tom Lenox and William Bailey get that reminder every day, both on and off the job.

As two of the four African-American officers on the 173-member Erie Bureau of Police, they've occasionally been called sellouts and Uncle Toms.

The N-word and other racially-charged insults have been spit their way, by both blacks and whites.

And people sometimes ask how they can arrest "their own kind."

Within that context, in a city with neighborhoods plagued by gun violence and where many residents carry a deep distrust of law enforcement, Lenox and Bailey accepted a special assignment from Police Chief Randy Bowers in November: help us recruit minority officers.

Both veteran officers -- who stressed that they believe most people they encounter respect and appreciate what they do -- embraced the challenge.

For the past few months, Lenox and Bailey have worked job fairs, talked with college students, and collaborated with local churches and jobs agencies to let prospective candidates know that police work can be an honorable, good-paying job -- no matter what color you are.

"We look at this as an opportunity. ... What are we doing to give people that different perception?" said Lenox, 42, an Erie patrolman since 2005 who is also a member of the bureau's Special Weapons and Tactics team.

"Crime has no color. It's about doing something with honor. Right and wrong," Lenox said. "You define who the badge is. It's not the other way around."

Bailey, 43, joined the force in 2003. Recruiting is important to him "because a department of this size should be more reflective of the community."

The bureau's officers include two Latino men and nine white women.

"I always tell people, 'If you want to make change, then do something about it,'" Bailey said. "We need (minorities) to take the police test. We need people to come out and make a difference."

Applications for the next round of Erie police testing will be available on March 31.

Bowers said he promised to address diversity and police-community relations when Mayor Joe Sinnott appointed him police chief, effective Sept. 1.

The recruiting Lenox and Bailey are doing, Bowers said, follows up on that pledge.

"Everybody knows, in the community, that we need to have minority representation on our job. That is an unchallenged fact," Bowers said. "After talking to some people I respect in the community, I thought this was a good idea. Using our own people to demonstrate that minority candidates can take the (police) test, they can pass the test, and they can do the job."

The starting salary for an Erie police patrolman is $40,005, climbing to $66,675 within three years.

'Opportunity for change'

Johnny Johnson, a retired Erie School District teacher and local historian, is one of the people Bowers consulted with about the police bureau's challenges. Johnson likes what Bowers, Lenox and Bailey are doing.

"You have to have your police officers involved in the community in a positive way," said Johnson, who has done extensive research on the contributions of African Americans to Erie history. "Especially your minority officers.

"Hopefully Lenox and Bailey can get young people interested in police work as a career. Get them not to look at police as an adversary," Johnson said. "Get them to look at police work as a way to change things."

However, Johnson said, the history of racial tension involving the Erie Bureau of Police is deep. The bureau's first 10 black officers were hired only after a federal court fight in the 1970s. A judge eventually ruled that city police's hiring practices were unfair to black candidates.

"But you have to push history out of the way and deal with the present," Johnson said. "We have a great opportunity for change here."

The two patrolmen took very different paths to police work.

Lenox came to Erie more than two decades ago from the New Kensington area to wrestle at Gannon University.

A former probation officer, Lenox coaches wrestling at McDowell High School when not on duty.

"I knew I wanted to get into some kind of social science field," said Lenox, who said he saw plenty of poverty and struggle growing up. "I had an understanding at a very young age I wanted to do something to give back."

Bailey joined the U.S. Army Reserves after graduating from Strong Vincent High School.

He had earned emergency medical technician certification and was working as a home health-care supervisor when his father, William Bailey Sr., and his pastor at the time at Community Missionary Baptist Church, the late Rev. Herlies Murphy, urged him to take the police exam in 2002.

"You can make a decent living (as a police officer)," Bailey said. "I don't think it's all about how many times I can arrest a person. ... I tell people that.

"This (recruiting) is something that needs to be ongoing," Bailey said, "because we're trying to change the mindset of people about the police department, especially in our (minority) community."

A different approach

Bowers said Lenox and Bailey are setting their own agenda, choosing the events and audiences for their recruiting pitch.

The two officers worked the Martin Luther King Jr. Career Fair at the John. F. Kennedy Center on Jan. 24, which was attended by 400 to 500 people.

They also have spoken to criminal justice students at Mercyhurst-North East and Gannon University, met with officials who assist local military veterans, and worked with Erie's Multicultural Community Resource Center.

Bowers said the entire police bureau -- from supervisors to rank-and-file officers -- is aware of the two officers' special assignment, and their schedules are adjusted when necessary to accommodate their efforts.

"Everybody down here knows this is a priority for me," Bowers said, "and if they don't know it, they're not paying attention. It's not lip service. It's the truth. No one's going to say anything (negative) about it, because it's a good idea."

Tiffany McCloud, president of the NAACP's Erie chapter, said she is encouraged by the effort.

"Our community is failing economically, our citizens are unemployed, and our children don't have an option for a community college," McCloud said. "We are hopeful that our officers will protect and serve."

Results might not come quickly, and plenty of recruiting pitches still must be made.

But both officers say they're in it for the long haul.

"If this (recruiting) is something we ease up on," Lenox said, "it's not really doing anything."

Said Bailey: "This can't be something where the test is over and we're all done. It has to be ongoing."

Bowers said he's solidly behind Lenox and Bailey.

"I want, and we need, men and women from our own community who want to step up and do this job," Bowers said. "I've got a lot of confidence in both of them to carry out this mission."

KEVIN FLOWERS can be reached at 870-1693 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNflowers.

Testing dates- Applications for the Erie Bureau of Police's written exam will be available on March 31. They can be picked up at city Human Resources Director Connie Cook's office in Room 300 at Erie City Hall, 626 State St.- Applications will be distributed through April 11, and they must be returned by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15. - The written exam will be May 17 at 10 a.m. at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. - A physical agility test will take place on June 28 at 9 a.m. at the Cathedral Prep Events Center, 501 W. 12th St.